


play pretend

by romie



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, just bumbling boys doing bumbling deeds, title's a spoiler just an fyi haha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-18
Updated: 2013-11-20
Packaged: 2018-01-01 23:12:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1049700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romie/pseuds/romie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin is the new transfer student.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. haru, no staring

**Author's Note:**

> so i'm writing this multi-chaptered ficlet thing since it's exam block and ha ah who needs to study when you can procrastinate? thus, the product! 
> 
> i'm also sort of winging this and what little plot idea i've got is based on my own uh life so feel free to drop suggestions!! 
> 
> that is all

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> stop and stare, haru ponders on the colour of rin's underwear

He notices him right away.

Rin’s red hair sticks out like a sore thumb, particularly so amongst a table of women. It isn’t fair how smoothly he integrates himself into a clique. Haru’s perhaps only a tad bit jealous, though he does nothing to alleviate the feeling.

 _Whatever_. His lips tug on both ends.

“You’ve been staring, Haru,” Makoto points.

“Yeah,” Nagisa lifts a finger to poke at his temple, “you have been, Haru-chan!”

It is only for a brief moment, under a half-second, but he thinks Rin may have inclined his head toward them. Just slightly. Errand strands of his hair still sways. Haru’s pretty damn certain he’s overheard.

“I –“ He realises then Nagisa’s still probing at his temple and he flicks off his finger. _Cut it out,_ he says through a glare. “I was not.”

Nagisa chuckles as if amused, and Haru’s backbone shivers at the ‘ _you so were!’_ laced thick in his laughter. He shoots a quick glance toward Rin, notices they’ve been paid no heed, and averts his gaze elsewhere.

It lands on Makoto’s patronising smile.

 

 


	2. rin kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> haru forgets to enquire if rin has a pool

It’s about three days later when he receives the friend request, and another week more until he’s got a message.

‘ _Hey B)’_

His lips quiver between a snort and a snicker, because _who even uses B) anymore?_

He replies after an hour, adopting an unaffected expression whilst he bumbles through dinner.  Unnecessary, really. There isn’t anyone else besides him in the house.

“Play it cool,” he whispers in self-reminder before replying.

‘ _hey’_

The conversation starts slow. ‘ _How are you?’ ‘good, you?’ ‘Yeah, same’_

Then, Rin dives; headfirst, like a predator. ‘ _Would u come over? And do stuff?’_

 _‘what’s stuff?’_ He cocks an eyebrow in disbelief.

‘ _Like, stuff’_

‘ _normal pg stuff?’_

 _‘Haha_ mature audience _stuff’_

He fidgets and tosses looks over his shoulder. Nobody’s home. He swallows, quite audibly too, and makes to fire a terse ‘ _sure’_ in response. It would probably come off sounding sarcastic above anything else. Though before he does so, his phone vibrates and there’s another line to Rin’s message.

‘ _I was kidding_ ’

Of course he was.

 

 

 

 


	3. i'm blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> haru's doodle came to town, riding on a pony

They exchange words; or more precisely, a word each.

“Hey,” Rin greets in passing.

Haru nods, “Hey.”

Nobody pays them any attention whilst they move to their seats – Rin to his girls, and Haru to Makoto and Nagisa. Most everyone in class is engaged in muted conversation, Haru included, though more out of propriety than anything. He just isn’t a very active participant.

“– and he won’t be back for a while.”

“I see,” he says, and nods perfunctorily at Nagisa. He then finds his line of vision attached to a lot of red in very little time.

Rin isn’t opposed to being clung onto.

“... zoned out, quite sure–”

Rin’s got his phone propped against his laptop. He’s on Instagram.

“... mackerel party!”

Rin’s gaze catches his through the reflection on his phone. The glass glints as he smirks.

“Haru-chan,” he feels a whisper on his ear now and flinches instinctively. “You’re popping a boner.” Light chuckles ensue.

He glances down, and, much akin to a maestro with his wand, Nagisa’s laughter erupts in place of an orchestra. Makoto gives him a good pat on the lap. He _so_ isn’t popping a boner, that little _punk_.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope people realised the chapter summaries are nonsense ah aha it is late into the night and i'm supposed to be studying for an upcoming chemistry test


	4. talk the walk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> feel free to make surprise visits by the window

Rin happens to live down the same road.

Haru discovers so when he’s walking home from school one day and looks back to find Rin a little ways behind, hands in his pocket, half his shirt tucked, the other half not. He entertains the notion of backtracking, but decides against it.

He’s too close to home now and the distance between them isn’t shortening. As to whether or not Rin noticed him up ahead, he isn’t even certain of. Yet, he recedes to a slow pace.

So slow, it isn’t even casual.

He turns into his street.

Rin still hasn’t caught up yet.

 

He steps across the threshold of his house and his phone connects to the internet once again. Happy times, truly. It vibrates in his pocket.

‘ _You should’ve waited for me’_

The very prospect of Rin noticing him sort of warms him up a little. Makes him want to vibrate where he stands too, like his mobile phone. _What the heck?_

‘ _why’_

‘ _I live 2 minutes down, past the roundabout on the same road’_

‘ _so?’_

He imagines Rin clocking him over the head (then maybe slapping band-aids over his bruise and nursing him back to full recovery with lots of mackerel and fun times at the pool). He tells himself to stop kidding.

‘ _So u could have waited’_

They make arrangements for tomorrow, after school. 


	5. he waits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> what's wrong with waiting (you stupid dick)

Tomorrow’s Tuesday.

‘ _I’ll walk slowly,’_ Rin texted, ‘ _chase after me’_

Haru leaves once class lets off, all clumsy hands and feet because he has an appointment to meet, and bids Makoto only a chaste goodbye. He's quick on his feet until he feels his phone vibrate against his pocket, then, his footsteps come to a complete halt.

‘ _I’m not walking today,’_ Rin’s message informs.

He’s washed with a mild sense of forlornness; it feels like tepid water.  

 

The day after is Wednesday, and Haru stays for extracurricular activities. He feels drained, for some reason or another.

 

On Thursday, he asks, ‘ _you walking today?’_

Again, Rin replies, ‘ _Yeah, I’ll walk slowly’_

 

‘Slowly’ still meant keeping a good two hundred metres ahead, even though he’s hasty in making it out of the gates and onto the road. He stares at Rin’s backpack from a distance and learns that Rin doesn’t wait for nobody.

Haru chases after nobody either, so things balance out. It does in his opinion, anyway, not that it rids the sour taste on his tongue. 

 

 


	6. the asshole you are

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hot from rin's text messages

‘ _You didn’t wait for me_ ’

The accusation’s heavy in the message. In fact, it feels almost palpable where he lies.

 _It’s the other way round, asshole_ , he thinks, before tossing his phone haphazardly onto the carpet. His skin prickles.

Seconds pass, and his limbs itch from forcibly relaxing. The next ten seconds find him with his back arched atop his bed. His bones make popping noises – nothing loud enough to divert his attention away from his phone. A swim sounds great right about now.

He groans self-deprecatingly, and it resonates throughout his room.

 

His phone’s back in his palms.

‘ _i didn’t see you’_  


	7. frown on your shoulders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it feels like we're sharing a pair of pants

He makes it in time on Friday, after school.

Finally. _Finally._  

Outside the school gates, a little path, which cuts through terrace houses, leads to the main road. On both sides of it are walkways – the left’s only tiled halfway; the right’s fully tiled. Rin walks on the left side.

Haru keeps to the right, naturally.

He lowers his head and his bangs fall over. They’ve gotten mighty long now, thought it doesn’t bother him, not at all. In fact, they’re carrying out quite the job shading his face from the sun. And from Rin, though Rin notices him all the same.

“Oi,” he calls out.

Haru purposefully ignores him in favour of checking out passing houses.

“Oi!” Rin tries again, from the other side of the road, with his voice cranked louder.

Haru feigns surprise. Just barely. He cants his head and blinks in poor act.

“Oh, hey.” He crosses the road and meets Rin where it begins to tile. Once there, he learns of a couple matters. For one, Rin’s taller than him (he talks, and Haru feels his breath across his hair; he breathes, and Haru feels it, just slightly, on his ear). Haru notices, because they’re sharing a narrow sidewalk.

That’s matter number two. He’s only a little weird for _not_ feeling bothered by the closeness. Their shoulders bump, and all proximity is sealed.

It makes it somewhat difficult to maintain conversation.

“I live right... here,” he goes to point at the upcoming street and is now genuinely surprised. _Rin sagged his shoulders._

 

 

 


	8. render me crinkled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> next time, rin's asking him out, because he's never doing it again

He checks his phone, and receives no new texts.

He checks again an hour later, and still, he receives nothing.

“Fool.” To think he’s expecting one, just as he did the days prior.

 

It’s dark outside now, six thirty in the evening, more or less. He realises he has fallen asleep. His phone sits heavily on his palm. Still, there are no new messages.

 _What a loser,_ he thinks of himself, before sending, ‘ _hey, you there?’_

He dallies about his room for ten minutes or so; sits on his thumbs and stares out the window. The phone, it doesn’t blink. He questions why whilst preparing dinner.

When he gets back an hour later, two unopened text messages lie await. It is at the moment he notices that he struggles a little for breath. Only for a second or so, because he’s a manly man (who harbours questionable feelings towards another manly man). He refuses to admit to the brief curling of his toes, or the particularly loud thump from his heart.

‘ _Hey’_ the first text says, then, ‘ _I’m here’_

The latter was fired fifteen minutes after. Haru takes pleasure in visualising Rin being even the slightest bit desperate for his attention.

‘ _you free tomorrow?’_

And because he feels a need to justify himself, adds, ‘ _I’m just looking for someone to get a couple stuff with’_

‘ _What’re you looking for?’_

‘ _gifts for poor children overseas,’_ he actually means it too, what with Christmas nearing and all, ‘ _and post-its’_

‘ _Cool’_

He feels as the four letters lifts his hopes. Somehow, it doesn’t sound as monotonous as it normally would.

 

Then, ‘ _I’m busy tomorrow though, got a competition down in the city’_

 

Crinkled paper best describes the state of his hopes.

 

 


	9. a short bonus thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a continuation to rin's text which haru doesn't like publicised

He’s in a bitter mood after that, except for the times when he’s got no choice but to smile. Rin does things sometimes that have his lips persistent in reaching for his cheeks, even when his words, as sharp as his teeth, remains imbedded on Haru’s heart.

 

‘ _You just wanted to take me out’_ Rin says through a text

Haru bites on his lips and firmly denies. ‘ _Who does’_

 

‘ _Just admit it’_

He doesn’t, and they don’t speak, or text, until five days later. 


	10. a shorter short bonus thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> big sighs, and you sigh again

It's selfish of him, but for every time his phone beeps, or blinks, or vibrates, he feels disappointed when the cause isn't Rin.

 


End file.
